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Southern allies oppose Centre's move

The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam today warned the Bharatiya Janata Party that it would oppose in Parliament the decision to clamp President's rule in Bihar following the Union cabinet's decision to reject its demand for dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

Cabinet sources said the AIADMK's demand for dismissal of the government headed by Muthuvel Karunanidhi was rejected because there is no report from the state governor recommending imposition of central rule.

They said Law Minister M Thambidurai made it clear that if the Centre went ahead and dismissed the Bihar government while sparing Tamil Nadu, his party would be left with no option but to oppose the move when it came up for ratification in the Lok Sabha.

Thambidurai's contention was that a state government can be dismissed without the governor's report. He recalled how the Tamil Nadu government, headed by the very same Karunanidhi, was dismissed in 1991 even though the then governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, had refused to give a report against it. Barnala, who is now Union food minister, was not present at the meeting.

Thambidurai made a spirited speech demanding Karunanidhi's dismissal. He said the AIADMK alliance won 30 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on the promise that the DMK would be ousted from power. He also claimed that the law-and-order situation in the state has deteriorated.

But barring Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, none supported him. Sources said Prime Minister A B Vajpayee did not even respond to the demand. Both Defence Minister George Fernandes and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar asserted that the Centre had no option but to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Patna.

In Bangalore, Union Commerce Minister and Lok Shakti president Ramakrishna Hegde said the Centre was committing a monumental mistake.

In a facsimile message to Vajpayee, a copy of which was released to the press, he said it was not proper to recommend dissolution of the assembly when the state government had proved its majority. It was against federalism in spirit, he said.

Hegde said such a step would also be against the national agenda of governance accepted by the coalition partners of the BJP. Besides it would be against the Supreme Court verdict in the S R Bommai case. A democratically elected government had the right to function as long as it worked within the framework of the Constitution, he said.

In Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh capital, the ruling Telugu Desam Party reiterated its opposition to the use of Article 356 and demanded that the Union government explain in what circumstances it sought to invoke the provision in Bihar. Former Union minister and TDP spokesman Umareddy Venkateswarlu said his party was against the use of Article 356.

UNI

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